Rockford IceHogs captain Tyler Sikura was holding on to every last ounce of hope last week that the AHL season would return.
But even then, it wasn’t as if he was about to put a bet down.
“I think the cards are probably stacked against us with the AHL resuming play this season, but we’re hopeful with some of the major leagues moving forward maybe that could result with a resumption in play for us,” Sikura said Thursday.
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A day later, the AHL’s board of governors voted to cancel the remainder of the season. The league formally announced the decision Monday. And with that, the IceHogs and their arena, the BMO Harris Bank Center, closed for the near future.
“I think as the AHL consulted with the NHL and its members, it was a tough decision to come to, but it was the decision that made the most sense for the league to really close this chapter and start looking towards the future,” Rockford Area Venues and Entertainment Authority (RAVE) executive director and general manager Troy Flynn said by phone Tuesday.
What does that future look like? That’s something Flynn, the AHL and the NHL are trying to figure out as they maneuver through the evolving information and ever-changing guidelines that come with COVID-19.
“Well, there’s a lot of variables out there right now,” Flynn said. “We’re taking into account a lot of different scenarios. It’s tough because it’s a state-by-state basis. You might have states who are going to open a little earlier, and you might have states who are going to open a little later. You have to take into account attendance, what that means for the league, in the AHL in particular. And you have to understand the health and safety concerns and why people might be reticent to coming back to this building, how we can prevent teams from getting infected and the staff to work the games.
“There’s so many things to mitigate at this point. It’s a lot, but we have a lot of intelligent people working on that, taking cues from NHL partners, taking cues from health departments. I really think, too, the international community is being involved. For us, we’re really relying on every resource that we have and using the metrics to make decisions.”
For now, there are some things we know about what the end of the AHL season means to the IceHogs.
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Flynn said the IceHogs’ 36 full-time employees are “essentially 100 percent furloughed.” Locker room employees of the Blackhawks are not included in that number. Flynn said he furloughs one week out of every month, and a lot of the organization’s senior staff is doing so every other month. IceHogs employees’ medical insurance remains continuous through their furloughs. Flynn said Rockford’s entertainment facilities have canceled or rescheduled 40 events, and that number will only grow.
“The shutdown has impacted us,” Flynn said. “Substantially would be an understatement.”
The IceHogs have been actively trying to engage fans and build interest for next season. Flynn said season-ticket renewals are up from this time last year, and he credited Joseph Zakrzewski’s efforts online in helping that.
IceHogs coach Derek King said he hoped to hold remote end-of-season meetings with players. He believes there is a possibility some IceHogs players could be told to be ready if the NHL’s season resumes.
“I could put a list together,” King said on a teleconference Tuesday. “I don’t know exactly what they’re thinking of who they would want. You know, I’ve heard rumors of a 30-man roster, so who are those extra players? I take it they will look at guys who already have some NHL experience. Obviously, they have guys that are up there now, the (Brandon) Hagels, the (Lucas) Carlssons. Guys like that will probably be on the list. You still have Dylan Sikura that could go up. You have (MacKenzie) Entwistle. On D, you obviously have (Dennis) Gilbert and these guys. I think they have plenty of bodies for them.
“It’s just, who are they going to take to fills those final voids? I’m not sure. Again, it’s like, ‘Bring your passport on the road trip,’ because you never know if you’re going to get called up. So these guys should be preparing this summer like, if this NHL goes, they might be one of those five or six guys who could get an opportunity to get up.”
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While most of the Blackhawks organization has been quiet since the announcement of John McDonough’s firing as president, King said there has been ample internal communication and he wasn’t worried about his job being affected by any major organizational changes.
“The communication has been great,” King said. “We’ve had a couple of staff meetings. There’s no reason for anybody to be alarmed or nervous about anything. That was the decision they made — that’s out of my league. I stay in my lane here. That’s their decision, whatever. … As far as I know, everything’s status quo, just moving on. Obviously, our season’s over and then we’re just kind of waiting to see what happens with this NHL. I’m sure maybe or maybe not, maybe after the season is officially over, maybe there’s some more conference calls and we’ll go from there. As far as now, everything’s good. It’s just too bad the season ended the way it did.”
The IceHogs were pushing for a Calder Cup playoff spot before the stoppage and had moved up the standings after a tough January. They finished the season 29-30-2-2 and were tied for fourth in the Central in points and tied for fifth in points percentage.
“Maybe it’s a good thing for these guys because they could’ve thrown a stinker at us the last dozen games and then we’d really have a hard time,” King said. “But, joking aside, I loved where we were at coming into the final month there, the final push. We had a lot of injuries, again. For some reason, I don’t know what it is, but we had a lot of call-ups, key guys missing out for a long stretch of time here, so for our guys to battle through it and stay where we were at in the division, hats off to those guys.
“We definitely could have done some different things in stretches where we had too many losses in a row, but these guys never quit. Like I always said, they’re too dumb to quit. They just keep going, and I’m really proud of them. Again, hats off to them and I really, really … when I have my meetings with them, whether it’s on FaceTime or Zoom or whatever we do, everything is going to be very positive with these guys. They earned it. They deserve it.”
King said Hagel would be his pick for team MVP and unsung hero. He also mentioned the positive play of Entwistle, Gilbert and Philipp Kurashev this season.
King was asked about the possibility of returning next season to play in an empty arena. Like most in the game, he’s all for whatever it takes to be back on the ice.
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“If that’s what we have to do, that’s what we’re going to have to do,” King said. “Hopefully, the fans can gradually make their way back to games. It’ll be weird. It’ll be very weird. But it’ll probably be like going to an Islander game in the late ’90s when we weren’t very good. I’m used to it.
“But, no, I think it’ll be challenging. It’ll be challenging for the players to get up for games. Skating out through the Hog there, through the tunnel and there’s nobody up there, that’ll be something we’ll deal with if it comes to that, and we’ll deal with it when that time comes.”
Not having fans would significantly affect the IceHogs and BMO Harris Bank Center, which are owned by the city of Rockford. The possibility is on the list of things Flynn is potentially planning for.
“I can tell you from a team perspective, fans are very, very important to us, and we are exhausting ourselves to better understand how to get our fans engaged if we cannot participate with them in the stands at the beginning of the season,” Flynn said. “It’s something that our team is really after to better understand and to make sure because it’s not only fans, it’s sponsors. Understandably, the sponsors have an affiliation with us because there’s some marketing aspect there. … What does that look from a broadcast standpoint? How can we do even more significantly with a little bit more pop? That’s something that we’re investigating.
“Frankly, the league has to open up and they say, ‘Look, you’re one of the states who can’t host home games,’ maybe, hopefully, it’s understandable, we go on the road for an extended road trip out of the gate. I mean, that’s the crazy part of this whole scenario. We’re all living in a fluid situation if A happens. It doesn’t necessarily mean B and C are going to follow. It could be D and F.”
Whenever the BMO Harris Bank Center does reopen, fans can expect a different experience. The IceHogs are planning for that, too. But for now, it’s a game of planning and waiting.
“I think I’m like so many people now that we’ve put the wait in and we’re looking forward to finding normal,” Flynn said. “However, I feel we need to be cautious and make sure we’re following these guidelines from our community leaders and we’re making sure the environment is right to reengage everything. In Illinois, we’re Phase 5, so that’s a long time away. We have big bills with these big buildings. I can guarantee you we’re going to be working while these buildings are basically closed down right now to ensure our guests have a safe and healthy environment to come and interact with.
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“It may look a little different when you’re coming through the doors. There’s going to be a lot of touchless types of initiatives. I think you’re going to see some different approaches with food and beverage. Even sitting could be a new look. But we’re doing this for fans, we’re doing this for the players, we’re doing this for the community, and we’re going to take the appropriate and necessary steps to make sure these environments are safe and healthy so people can return.”
A Blackhawks spokesperson declined interview requests for Blackhawks vice president of hockey operations and team affiliates Mark Bernard and Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman and said the organization would defer to Flynn’s statements.
(Photo: Scott Powers / The Athletic)
